Kinley and Madelyn are home

The Tarrant twins got home from the NICU last week - being loved by their parent in their home! I have not been to see them yet but I plan on going very soon.

Check out their blog to see pictures of the twins: http://etarrant.blogspot.com/

Twin girls - born last night

The youngest of the Diaper Darlings is now a Mom to twin girls -Kinley Margaret and Madelyn Clare were born last night close to 9:00 to Chris and Elizabeth. Suzanne sent me a text and soon after I headed to the hospital. I have know Elizabeth since she was born and it seamed fitting that I was at the hospital when her girls were born.

Here is Elizabeth's blog where Suzanne is keeping everyone posted on the twins.
http://etarrant.blogspot.com/

Picturers are up with more to follow I am sure- - -

Elizabeth was OK when I saw her for just a second last night after the delivery and Chris was on cloud 9 - camera in hand - when I left the hospital at 10:00 he was in the waiting room surrounded by family and friends already down loading pictures on his lap top for all to see.

So check her blog to watch these precious "Gifts from God" grow.

I can not wait to really see the girl in person - I got a tiny glimpse of one in the NICU through a crack in the door last night.

Thank you God for keeping this family safe and for giving them 2 precious little girls.

15 years with ALS

It has now been 15 years since our lives were changed forever - first diagnosed in Dallas and then a trip to Houston to confirm that our daughter - only 23 years old at that time - had ALS(Lou Gehrig's Disease). A disease that strikes the average age of a person 55 years old - more men than women - however since I have been learning more and more about this "monster" disease it strikes ALL AGES. It has no treatment or cure. If you do not know - it is a progressive degenerative muscle disease - killing the motor neurons in your body which makes you muscles work.

Here is the site for MDA /ALS division on line: http://www.als-mda.org/
and ALSA national web site: http://www.alsa.org/

However my daughter has "Beaten the Odds" - fighting to live well past what the doctors told us to expect which just goes to show God is in control of our live. HE still has plans for Marcie and our family. She has touched so many lives in her lifetime.

I am so very proud of my daughter - she has NEVER GIVEN UP !

Going from a very active person to a wonderful adult. She is so smart and can communicate so fast on her Eye Response computer called ERICA. http://www.eyeresponse.com/

I could go on and on about her but I will not.

The children from down the street come by to see her - they came on her birthday - a very cold night in Nov. and sang Happy Birthday to her from the porch as she sat inside the house. The other day they came down and stood at her window saying "Hi Marcie" "Hi Marcie" and as Hannah left - she is 5 - she said "I love you Marcie".

We pray for a miracle everyday - maybe it will happen soon.

I need your help !

For those of you who know my email address - please send me an email so I can have your email address again - I lost just about all my email addresses and need to rebuild my address back up - my computer had to be cleaned out - I lost so much - should know better then to always count on a machine - thank you - Linda

Message to PALS & CALS

15 years ago this month our lives changed forever!

vvv

In the months that followed Marcie would go monthly to UT Southwestern in Dallas for breathing tests since she was in two different drug trials in those first 3 yeas after diagnoses. In one of the rooms where the breathing test was done was a copy of a picture like this - but it was not colored in - a copy was given to Marcie and she colored it in -

xxx

All PALS and CALS must remember NEVER GIVE UP !

xxx

ALS is awful - for not only the person with ALS but their family members and friends but we all must NEVER GIVE UP - God has always been in our lives but especially during the past 15 years God has been with Marcie and our family - without God we never could have made it - we do not understand this but we have learned to accept it - it is all in God's plan for our life. We are praying for a cure and a miracle to put a stop to ALS forever.

x

In some ways the past 15 years have been so long but in other ways it was like yesterday -

x

So to all PALS and CALS - NEVER GIVE UP ! ! !

Ice for a day !

Many of our trees were covered with ice today - Saturday it was 80 degrees - today it was freezing - BUT that is Texas for you - hot one day ice the next - or the next day ! Tomorrow it will be warm again - I bet!

It did look so pretty on the trees - it was not on the roads so that was OK!

Avon Calling !

I got a call yesterday from my "Avon Lady" who is also my friend and a Diaper Darling.

She had been at my house last week and saw our "little TV" in the den. Our big TV "popped" this past summer and fearing it might catch on fire we trashed it.

Not ready go get a new one I took the "little TV" from the sun room/ play room - not very big but it works. You can not see it from the table so we would have to use TV trays if we were watching TV - about 3 ft. from the TV - and eating.

Anyway she called me yesterday to tell me she had a surprise for me - when I ask what it was - she said if she told me it would not be a surprise and could I come by and get it or she could give it to me at church today. Wondering what in the world it was - as soon as I could I headed to her house.

She was almost laughing with excitement when I got there - showing me into her den there on her couch was a TV - much bigger then the one we had in our den. It had a tiny purple bow on it - she said it was for us ! I was laughing - that was so funny!

I told her we were looking at flat screens but just had not decided on one yet - she said this would work until we had time to get our new TV and then I could " up grade" and use this bigger one in the sun room / play room - she did not want it back.

Her husband put it in the van and I was laughing all the way to Target - where I was headed from her house.

Living with a family member having ALS - I just do not have much to laugh about. But living with a family member with ALS I have learned to accept what people do for us from their heart. People always ask us what we need but when people see what we need - and just give it or do it it means so much more. We can buy a new TV - but finding the time to go shop for it is hard but we will get a new TV at some point. We are so blessed by the many people who have helped us in one way or the other over the past 15 years that Marcie has been DX with ALS.

So yesterday I had a good laugh and now we have a TV we can actually see from the dinning room and the kitchen - - - and my grandsons can have their TV back in the play room to play their games on - and my Avon Lady did something from her heart !

So thanks Avon Lady for your friendship and your love !

It was so warm in Texas on Thanksgiving Day...

we ate dinner outside with family and friends - only bothered by one bumble bee that must have liked the sweet potatoes !

We even had a fire going just for fun !

A visit with Ben, Savannah, Ethan, Drew and Suzanne

I went to see the kiddo's today- I can no longer call them babeis - I had not seen them in such a long time but as I told Suzanne - it is like I see them very often since I read her blog after every new posting -

Ethan is walking, Drew and Ben are trying to walk taking a few steps now and then. Miss Savannah is talking -saying works and making MOO noises like a cow and meaning it to be MOO like the sound a cow makes.

They are the friendless little people - they had not seen me in who knows how long but they gave me hugs like I had seen them yesterday -

So much fun to just sit back and watch them play -

They are such sweet, happy and healthy children to have started out so small - good parenting from Suzanne and Joe and as Suzanne said also with the help of the Diaper Darlings who obey the strict rules of when not to go love on those babies -

A true sign of fall in Texas!

The leaves on the trees in my back yard are all turning red, orange, yellow and brown mixed with a few green leaves - the leaves are so colorful - soon they will all turn brown and fall to the ground.
When I was a child, growing up in Waco Texas, my parents had a huge pyracantha bush in the front yard - the berries were orange and red so a few years ago I got one and put in my back yard. It reminds me of my child hood.
The berries are so heavy on some of the branches they are pulling the branches down.